Thursday, 29th

I was not able to upload photos, the connection is not good enough.

Days may come and go, but they all look different, and this makes me forget about updating the website. Not to mention my calera is out of battery and I won't be able to buy new ones before a few days. What about using the bullet list format again? I think last post stopped when I reached Zadar.

• The old city of Zadar is a great place. It is a bit too much touristic for me, but manages to keep it organised enough not to sink in the crowd. The heart of the city is made of narrow streets and a couple of large avenues, inside a big city wall that goes around the island. One of the wide sides is left without wall though, allowing for nice walks in the shadows of the trees of a small park. Also, no hotels in the heart of the town only shops and mostly houses. I think this is what allows it to keep its soul despite the tourists.
• I slept in the park one night, then met Jelena, Anja and her boyfriend through Couchsurfing. Three students in the middle of their exams.
• I stayed at their place for 4 days. Great times, and a few photos.
• We did a strange culinary experiment, featuring Avja, a local specialty usually eaten on bread. I however was sure it would be good with rice, too. Actually, it was good, but I believe it would be better with cold rice, in a salad way.
• Before I left, we had a beer on the docks to celebrate the end of 2 months of traveling.
• First hitchhiking experience on the road to Šibenik. See the dedicated post about it. By the way, I finally found a lift. Actually, a lot of them, since on this road you mostly find locals. Thus, it took me 5 lifts to reach Šibenik.
• Šibenik was a nice city, but that's about it. Here are a few photos.
• Hitchhiking from Šibenik to Split is quite hard: there are multiple roads, splitting the vehicle flow. Took me 3 hours to get a lift, and did not even get to Split, but a town about 10km before it. Very nice town though, calm, and great view over Split on the other side of the bay.
• I really liked Split. I admin the heart of the city is very touristic, but tourists get up quite late in the afternoon. Also, I had some bad weather there, and usually it scares tourists away. Finally, those photos are the last one for now, as I ran out of battery after the last one. Oh by the way, unusual thing: Split's Lacoste has a WiFi hotspot. Handy.
• I met two Polish backpackers in Split. Very cool guys, we spent some time talking, and shared a casino building (not yet finished) for the night. Had very very bad weather though, a strong tempest burried us under loads of sand, it took me 2 hours to clean up my backpack in the morning.
• Took me two days to get to Markarska: no luck with hitchhiking there. Also, the buhra started. It is a very strong wind resulting from cold air blocking hot air around the mountains, till it makes it way and accelerates under the high pressure. It is strong enough to carry small rocks that hurt like hell.
• Save Markarska! This nice small town is being slowly eaten by toursim. One can see the process going on: there is a clear frontier between the beach side, full of crappy tourist shops selling toys, maid-in-China souvenirs and such, and the seaport side, featuring nice coffess where locals go at the end of the day. This frontier moves every year, threatening the heart of the city.
• About to leaving to Dubrovnik, I met Valentina, a young baker stuck here for 4 months, more or less against her will. Life is not always easy ;)
• The a very efficient hitchhiking session lead me 60km to the south after only 5 minutes of exercising my thumb! This part of Croatie is very different from the rest. Another post will cover that.

That's it for today. To be followed... next post will feature the end of the Croatian part of my trip in Dubrovnik, the end of hitchhiking, and the entry in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A lovely country, quite complex to understand but with really nice people and wonderful landscapes.